Tape and vinyl sampling has been at the cornerstone of dance music production since the start. Today, our passion for the production pioneers explains a generation of tape and vinyl modelling plugins.

But no amount of plugins are as good as the real thing – meticulously edited drum hits recorded to tape, consumer cassette and vinyl using a range of high-end and classic outboard.

Oozing with a warmth and personality that’s impossible to recreate in the digital realm, these painstakingly crafted hits – tracked at one of the UK's leading mastering houses – will give beats unmistakable depth and fullness without the need for much, if any, additional processing. Prepare to be surprised how much easier beats come together with sounds already imprinted with the same ever-pleasing sonic flavour.

Meticulously curated from the best of the best drum samples across the Sample Magic catalogue, all hits have been tracked to industry-leading Qauntegy GP-9 tape on a Studer A80, cut to vinyl with a Neumann VMS70 lathe, SAL 74C rack and SX74 cutting head and then lightly treated through the Phoenix Thermionic compressor via an all-analogue chain of Focusrite Blue 315 pre-amp, Maselec MEA-2 EQ and Waves Maxx BCL limiter.

Divided into folders of Vinyl, Tape, TapetoVinyl, Cassette and Desk, the same hits are given new leases of life in each, from subtle air in the Desk version through to heavyweight transient-trashing in the consumer Cassette folder, offering different flavours for different production needs.

Vinyl > The classic vinyl sound – think warmth, body, fullness, air – is what this folder is about. Ideal for all manner of beat creation across all genres, hits were finalised using the Phoenix Thermionic valve compressor then cut to vinyl with a Neumann VMS70 Lathe, SAL 74C rack and SX74 cutting head.

Tape > At hotter recording levels, transients start to fall away and high-end signal is reduced making for the kind of fuller drum sounds famously audible on Stevie Wonder's Superstition. Although we were careful not to push too hard, the sounds here – recorded to Qauntegy GP-9 tape on a Studer A80 – just seem to fit the mix.

Vinyl to Tape > A frivolous exercise in pushing the limits, in this folder the hits in the vinyl folder were then recorded to tape for an all-analogue overdose of woozy warmth. Although it's unlikely you'd make a full beat using this folder, for single super-sized hits that make the groove, start here.

Cassette > Consumer casette has been credited by artists from Tycho to Washed Out for the kind of lo-fi drum flavours in Chillwave production. Celebrating the unashamedly home-made, this folder eschews the high-end equipment used elsewhere in the release for a single consumer cassette deck (Tascam Domestic 22-2 1/4") for full and brash hits that would work not only in Chillwave and Chillout productions, but also French House, Electro and all manner of left field electronica.

Desk > The cleanest drums of the lot, these hits are run through a Focusrite Blue 315 pre-amp, Maselec MEA-2 EQ and Waves Maxx BCL limiter (reducing no more than 1-2dB of gain) for lightly massaged body and warmth.

Check out how we made the collection here:

For ultimate ease of use, each folder is divided into as many as seven descriptive sub-folders to make finding the hits you want as intuitive as possible.